We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.ContinueFind out more

‘In my house, as in many other households, there was a multivolume pictorial history of the war, over which I pored for entire mornings or afternoons, until I knew every picture by heart.’

‘Despite his age, Greenspan is still said to be enthralled by the statistics over which he has pored for many years.’

‘Some years ago, while poring among the items on offer at a stoop sale in Brooklyn, I came across a copy of the thirteenth printing of The Great Crash by John Kenneth Galbraith.’

‘Drea was poring silently over the books around her.’

‘She indulged his taste for draughtsmanship - the two pored together for hours over architectural drawings.’

Usage

People frequently confuse the verbs pore and pour. Pore is used with over or through and means ‘be absorbed in reading something’ (I spent hours poring over cookbooks), while pour means ‘flow or cause to flow in a steady stream’ (water poured off the stones; pour the marinade over the pork). As pore is a much less common word, people often choose the more familiar pour, producing sentences such as she was pouring over books and studying till midnight. Although increasingly common, this use is incorrect in standard English